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The use of computerised tomography in mental handicap patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

S. K. Lekh
Affiliation:
Charing Cross and Westminster Rotation, London
B. K. Puri
Affiliation:
Charing Cross and Westminster Rotation, London
I. Singh
Affiliation:
Leavesden and Hillingdon Hospitals
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Since its inception (Hounsfield, 1973), computerised tomography (CT) has become an invaluable diagnostic and research tool, particularly in clinical neurology and neurosurgery. Clinically, CT has proved useful in differentiating between ‘functional’ and ‘organic’ psychiatric disorders where it is particularly helpful in the diagnosis of potentially treatable organic disorders. For example, Owens et al (1980) found clinically unsuspected intracranial pathology in 12 of 136 chronic schizophrenic patients examined by CT and Roberts & Lishman (1984) found diagnosis, management, and/or prognosis were influenced in approximately 12% of cases referred by psychiatrists for CT imagining.

Type
Audit in practice
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1992

References

Hounsfield, G. N. (1973) Computerised transverse axial scanning (tomography): Part I. Description of a system. British Journal of Radiology, 46, 10161022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owens, D. G. C., Johnstone, E. C., Bydder, G. M. & Kreel, L. (1980) Unsuspected organic disease in chronic schizophrenia demonstrated by computed tomography. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 43, 10651069.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, J. K. A. & Lishman, W. A. (1984) The use of the CAT head scanner in clinical psychiatry. British Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 152158.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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